we're questioning many people, but there is no one no custody at this point in time. >> [ inaudible ]. >> again, we're still compiling that information, but we hope to have a count as soon as we can work with the hospitals and the public health people. >> is that accurate? the tweet i won't get into the details of that. >> i said i wouldn't get into details on that. there are people that have expired as a result of this incident. >> were the devices in the trash can or mailboxes? >> we don't know. >> were there police regarding victims at mass general? >> there are police that have been dispatched to all of the hospitals to secure the area and to make sure that we get every witness statement that we can possibly get. >> guarding rooms, specific rooms at mass general? >> there's a heavy police presence at all of the hospitals. >> are you looking through

garbage cans? are they skouerring the area? >> any -- anything that is unattended right now, any package that is unattended is being treated as a potential problem. we're methodically going through the area to make sure we check each parcel. >> we'll be back with some more information when we have it. >> just for some background, if you're a 20-year-old college student growing up in boston, you'd be forgiven for thinking your mayor will forever be named manino. this >> this is a cnbc special report. >> here is what we know at this point. according to police in boston, two separate explosions occurred around 2:50 p.m. eastern time this afternoon.

the elite runners had all crossed long before that, but the area was still crowded with late finishers and well-wishers. and police have confirmed at least two dead at this point and scores injured. >> we want to get right to bertha who has the latest. >> reporter: a tragic end to the 117th running of the boston marathon. here's what we know. according to boston police commissioner, ed davis, the two separate explosions occurred about ten minutes before 3:00 this afternoon. they happened 50 to 100 yards apart near copley square. police found a third device. the elite runners had all crossed long before but the area was still crowded with late inishers, many of those people who run for charity and their friends and well wishers. police have confirmed at least two people dead.

more than a hundred, it appears, had been hurt in the blast with area hospitals rorting that they've received scores of the injured. mass general hospitals says he compared they're injuries to those seen in a war zone. >> this is like an explosion that we hear about in baghdad or israel or some other trajing place in the world. >> as police secured the area, several miles away, there was a fire at the john f. kennedy memorial library and police initially could not rule out a connection. >> we have, at this point in time, determined that there has been a third incident that has occurred. there was an explosion that occurred at the j.f.k. library. so this is very much an on going event at this point in time.

we are not certain that these incidents are related, but we are treating them if they are. >> currently, it appears as if it was just a fire. security has been beefed up and people are being urged to avoid crowds. u.s. officials tell nbc news that there is no indication that there are additional threats. and indications of a threat before. in new york city tonight, officials have ramped up their security with heightened police presence in public areas until we can find out what the cause of this blast was.

>> meanwhile, the white house was quick to respond. >> reporter: in about five minutes, we expect the president to walk into the briefing room and give a statement. he's been briefed by his national security and homeland security officials this afternoon. he's spoken both to harry reid, the leader of the senate and speaker boehner. basically, the white house has told local and state authorities that they're willing to deploy any add min strags resources. diane finestein just put out a statement a few moments ago saying we know this is a terist incident, but we don't know if it's foreign or home grown. and i think that's about as far as anyone can be kft of at this

moment when you look at that video. everybody is being cautious about saying anything with a lot of confidence. >> and, john, we know that the president has spoken to the leadership in boston. want can you tell us in terms of those conversations? >> well, simply that he has told governor patrick, mayor menino and others that all of the resources of federal authorities will be put behind their efforts to figure out what happened and also to treat those who have been injured and killed to try to deal with the aftermath of this and prevent any occurrence of this.

we know there was a third explosive device that was found and detonated by security officials. everybody is going to be on heightened alert, not only in boston, but all around the country, especially in large cities for the potential for follow on attacks. but it's only sketchy information at the moment, marie. when the president comes out in a couple of minutes we may here more. >> meanwhile, one of the runners, jocelyn rood of cleveland ohio joins us on the telephone. are you with us? >> yes, i am. >> thanks for joining us. can you go through the day with us today and tell us what you saw and heard? >> sure. it's pretty loud 234 there. we heard two really large

explosions, probably, i don't know, maybe five seconds apart that kind of rocked the street. and it got real quiet for a couple seconds. and nobody really knew what it was. then probably flee or four minutes after that, all of the ambulances and police and emergency crews started running down the streets telling people to leave. nobody's cell phones were really working. we really weren't sure what was going on. we couldn't call out or get any calls in. so i wouldn't say it was pandemonium or panicked quite at that point, but it was a little scary. and then we actually found out what happened. just through people who were texting us. >> jocelyn, they sent family members to the boston common which is about three blocks east of the findish line. did you go there and talk about

their experiences? >> um-hmm. we did. and we got out of that family meeting area, headed out that direction. and everybody -- it was -- nobody really knew what was happening. it was just all we were get texts from the outside. >> have you run the marathon before? i mean, crowds i hear were bigger this year than they've been in the past. >> apparently, we lost her cell phone there at this point. >> are you with us? it's interesting to hear from someone on the glound. it doesn't aappear that she actually heard the booms the way others did, which were obviously just approaching that finish line. >> and just a reminder, as we recap this tragic day in boston, on; of all day's, patriot's day, the biggest holiday in

massachusetts celebrating the heritage that is in massachusetts, a commonwealth there. we're waiting for president obama to come out and have his comments on this -- these twin explosions. the third of which, now we are hearing, was around the j.f.k. library. and then, of course, we heard that there were two other explosive devices that were found that did not detonate and they've been dismantled. that may be a break for law enforcement officials as day try through forensics to try and figure out who put these explosives together and eventually maybe catch some suspects in this case. >> at this point, everyone is calling this terrorism, given the fact that we know that these bombs were put there. let's get to the president. >> i've directed the full resources of the federal government to help state and local authorities protect our people.

increase security around the united states as necessary and investigate what happened. the american people will say a prayer for boston tonight and michelle and i said our deepest thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims in the wake of this senseless loss. we don't yet have all the answers. but we do know that multiple people have been wounded. some gravely in explosions of the boston marathon. i've spoken to f.b.i. director muller and secretary of homeland security and they're mobilizing the appropriate resources to investigate and to respond. i've updated leaders of congress in both parties and we reaffirmed on days like this that there are no republicans or democrats. we're americans. i've always spoken with the governor and the mayor and made it clear that they have every single federal resource necessary to care for the victims and counsel the fanl

families. boston police, firefighters and first responders, as well as the national guard responded heroically and continue to do so as we speak. it's a reminder that so many americans serve and sacrifice on our behalf every single day without regard to their own safety in dangerous and difficult circumstances. and we salute all of those who assisted in responding so quickly and professionally to this tragedy. we still do not know who did this. or why. and people shouldn't jump to conclusions before we have all of the facts. but make no mistake. we will get to the bottom of this. and we will find out who did this. we'll find out wie they did this. any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice. today is a holiday in massachusetts. patriot's day.

it's a day that celebrates the free and fiercely independent spi spirt that this great american city of boston has reflected. it's a day that draws the world to boston streets in a spirit of friendly competition. boston is a tough and resilient town. so are its people. i'm supremely confident that boston will pull together, take care of each other and move forward as one proud city. and, as they do, the american people will be with them every single step of the way. you should anticipate that as we get more information, our teams will provide you briefings. we're still in the investigation stage at this point. but i just want to reiterate. we will find out who did this. and we will hold them accountable. thank you very much. >> the president there making

his first reaction in boston. let's get reaction now from john harwood who is outside of the white house. john, no real new information here. but, of course, the president quite adamant in reacting to what we've learned today. >> exactly, maria. two relevant statements. one, we don't know who did this and why. two, when we do figure out why, and who did it, they'll feel the full weight of justice. that is all the president had to say. everything else was simply repeating what have come out through spokesmen with the f.b.i. director, his discussions with leaders of congress, with leaders in massachusetts and in boston. and the investigation is fully under way here at the white house. you have tourists still outside across from where i'm standing in lafayette park. but they're kept on the far side of pennsylvania avenue by police and there's police tape keeping the avenue clear. so there's concern not a huge

lockdown here at the white house by any means, but everyone is in full investigative move. >> joining us now by telephone is former secretary of homeland security, tom ridge. secretary ridge, good to have you on the program. from what you know so far, what does this look like to you? >> first off, i want to commend the president. i think he did the right thing by reminding the country that the federal government will put all the resources necessary to bring these individuals to jus is the. we don't know the motive. we don't know the actor, actors or organization. we shouldn't speculate. hereby's what i know or think. this is a very basic device. it's something that anybody could put together if they took the time.

i know that targets like this are a concern of every event planner. you have a very storied event. this is one of the world's major marathons. probably attracted more than half a million people. in spiet of all of the good work, i'm quite confident that the people of the marathon did to secure the 26 plus miles through multiple communities, residential centers, communities and commercial areas and the like. you cannot eliminate the risk. >> mr. secretary, we certainly wouldn't ask you to second guess the security was in place or is every in place for an event like the boston marathon, but is theless son-in-lthe le lesson taken away that you can only do so much? and when all is said and done, we can't really fully protect

everybody at all time sns. >> i think that's a fair statement. i don't think people should be breathless about the fact that you can only manage the risk. you cannot eliminate the risk. i think people should better then understand and appreciate how important it is for the law enforcement and the intelligence community to get as much information as they can so that you can get the actor before horrible events like this are literally triggered. i think it's a painful reminder that we are in open country. we enjoy our freedoms. the first lesson is let's not compromise and let's not have a cease and desist order. they did everything they possibly could over a 26 mile area to reduce the risk. and the third lesson is you still need to identify the ak toshs before it happens. and that's why the intelligence and law enforcement community are so critical to the effort to

secure this country. >> so secretary ridge, walk us through the steps being taken or that you would expect to be taken at this point when you get a call like this. what do you think is going on in terms of investigative policies in place right now? >> well, i suspected, and, again, it's sec police statipeu point. i suspect that the f.b.i., with the consent of the state and local police as responsibility at this time. this kind of incident brings out the best in our human nature. there's probably more collaboration than we can possibly imagine. and right now, they're tracking down every conceivable lead. if they had cameras posted, i'm sure they're doing review of the video.

ever since this happened fwr the time the first responders went to the aid and comfort of those has been more activity than the public will ever possibly imagine. >> i was going to ask about those two devices that didn't explode. that's going to be a real break in the case, couldn't it? >> i think it can be. as i understand it, i certainly didn't do all that well in chemist chemistry, but it had an explosive impact. given the fact that there was a lot of spoke and a limited range, speaks to the kind of ingredients. but i think, you know, everything conceivable from fingerprints to identifying the material used in identifying the sources of material, as i said, they are already working on that. >> but how do you know if it's domestic or international? what are the types of things

you'd be looking for? >> well, the best way is to get the perpetrator and find out. this could have been a home grown terrorist. one would think that this may or may not have been a jihadist or a terrorist associated with a formal terrorist association. remember, the war is really against a certain kind of etology. so this individual could have embraced that mind set. >> history suggests that when an event like this happens, somebody eventually takes credit for it in some fashion or another. are you surprised that hasn't happened yet? >> no.

>> it becomes this chaotic bombing that has no meaning if somebody's trying to make a statement. >> obviously, there was a motive. what the motive is, you and i can only speculate. if there's only one individual involved and that individual is on the run, who knows why there hasn't been a telephone call for somebody taking credit. it may or may not happen. but at the end of the day, the source of information that will lead us to the perpetrator is with that -- the unexploded twic twi devices. >> and we still don't have muchd definitive. i mean, based on the way this was played out, two explosions just seconds between each other. does this tell you anything in terms of what the origin might be? >> no, not at this point. i'm not surprised there were multiple devices. remember, there were four. i'm not sure what the other location was.

but somebody thought this through. they identified a specific event. they knew that it would be populated, heavily populated. and, again, without knowing the triggering mechanism, it's tough. and that in and of itself may be a clue that would lead to identifying the perpetrator. >> that's a really important point that you make. somebody thought this through. this was an event. this was planned. so it is fair to say this was terrorism. >> i would characterize it as terrorism. there are other people in this town that might disagree with me. there wasn't a robbery associated with this. there wasn't anything but the maiming of dozens of people from an unknown motive from an unknown source. when you kill innocence, it easter richl. >> this is an event that occurs

more frequently overseas where security is a lot less. >> i think that's true. and i think that's very important for your audience and for the country to appreciate the work that is probably going on right now. and also the fact that literally, probably on a weekly basis, there are dozens and d s dozens of events where americans gathered. and even before 9/11, there were potential targets. gifden the fact that we're dealing with terrorism, there's always that potential. one way to make sure nothing happens is cancel et. so what do you do along the way.

they had cameras, helicopters, unmarked cars. you can just do so much. but as you said earlier, there are limits. all you can do is try to mip miez the risk because you know in the united states of america, you can't e limb nate. the only way to eliminate -- there are two ways. identify the perpetrator before it happened and you apprehended him or you cancelled the e veshlt.'s interesting that you y that because the new york city marathon was cancelled. when would you estimate that we would have real information in terms of how this originated? >> i'd like to give you an answer, but we can't. i don't know how much science would be needed, how much scientific analysis would be

required in order to identify the perpetrator or perpetrators. i think you just have to take comfort in knowing that as the president said, all the resources available from within the federal government in collaboration with state and local officials will be used to identify the actors. and to that extent, we all join the president in a powerful remembrance of the victims. i know others -- i didn't hear the word terrorism, but one man is entitled to his opinion. and when you cut down innocent people at a public event, in my mind, it's an act of terrorism. >> mr. secretary, thank you so much. >> thank you very much. >> meanwhile, we've got george schoville on the phone.

george, thanks for calling in. what did you see? >> i didn't really see a whole lot of anything. i was in the lord and taylor department store when the explosions went off. but my brother was running the race. >> and you heard it from inside the store? >> i heard it inside the store and felt the building shake, felt the ground shake. and i looked out the window and just saw people running away from boyleston street. i looked out to see if i could see what's happening. a lot of people crying. you could smell smoke in the air. >> george, i've been up there for the marathon many times and i'm always struck by the crowds. but the security is usually pretty good. can you describe any security measures that you saw there before and during the race today? >> sure, during the race, they had the standard barricades on

either side of the street. i was downtown with family and it's a popular place to go watch the race. it's right at the finish. boston police department, you know, they were on the course sort of maintaining the barricades and they were also all over the downtown area. >> has it gone up, the security before 9/1. . >> i never saw the race before 9/11. >> was it visible? did you see smoke in the air? what did the smoke look like? >> there was not smoke visible at first. . >> i could eventually see a little bit of smoke.

i went back to the lord&taylor and saw some of the barricades had fallen over and the starbucks right there, all the windows had been blown out. so it was pretty terrifying. >> i can imagine. george, thanks for calling in. glad you're safe. >> let's get more reaction now from fred burton. former counter terrorism agent with the state department. thanks for being with us. sir, we appreciate your time today. >> walk us through want is going on right now behind the scenes in your view, in terms of getting to the bottom of this? who planted these bombs? >> the f.b.i. joint terrorism task force will no doubt take the lead in cooperation with the boston police department. to try to figure out who did this. dleer clearly, the sophistication of the bomb maker will be telling. i listened to secretary ridge's

comments and he was certainly spot on. but the degree of sophistication will be telling once the forensics are done. and there will be a tremendous amount of forensic evidence that will result as a result of the crime scene search. >> do you -- you've been through this before, i'm sure. we're still wondering about motive. we hate to speculate. we don't want to say anything public about what might have happened. here it is, a huge crowd, one of the great events in american history that's been going on for years. and they choose the time of day when the most people would be going through the finish line at that time. maybe what i'm asking is a psychology test of some kind on who might do something like this on a day like this.

it's really hard to say. it was later determined to be eric ludoff who had carried off a series of attacks. it's really difficult to speculate until more facts are known. >> you have international runners. it's unclear whether or not one of the twices was placed on the street or inside a store. it's been my experience from investigating these kinds of attacks that your flying glass causes the bulk of the injuries in these kinds of cases. and, again, the question i asked secretary ridge, are you surprised nobody has taken credit for this yet? otherwi otherwise, what's the point. if you are trying to make some kind of a statement or a point of some kind, whether it's political or otherwise, it's

going to be lost on everybody if you don't make it clear who did this and why. >> i think that could be part of the strategy. the proximity were close enough to have one actor involved. one single person. so, in essence, if that individual is on the run, he perhaps hasn't had time to make any kind of claim and credit. but, in essence, if you look at the actual attack, that was a statement in itself. >> but do we know that it is one actor only for sure? and how sophisticated, based on what you know about the bombs, how they were found, about the place, how sophisticated was this bomb-making activity in terms of getting down to who did this? >> maria, it would be hard to say whether or not you had one actor involved here or other persons that facilitated this.

it's been my experience that will will be some support network or someone who had knowledge of this ahead of time. if you look at the sophistication of these devices, people will say they're rudimentary. they're hard to put together. it does take a little bit of practice. i've put them together in a training envierpt. i've blown them up. it takes a skill set to be able to do this and to get it right. so, in essence, the person that detonated these devices probably has done this before, at least in a practice scenario. >> i was supposed to be on a plan tonight and that got cancelled because of duty here. i told my daughter i was heading out and she said please don't get on an airplane. i think of secretary ridge's statements early on after 9/11 to go about your day as much as you can, but be mindful around you. and i think we have a good reminder of that today, don't

you? >> i would say so so. they're very difficult to protect. again, it's a soft target. you could go back to the s centennial park bombing in atlanta. we had everything locked down except for the park which was outside of concentric rings of security. in 2005, we had an individual that tried to get into a football game at the university of oklahoma to detonate a device and he was turned back by security and he detonated on a park bench outside. so this kind of venue is problematic. it's a pretty good target if you're planning some sort of attack. >> but is that the right advice right now? should we not be getting on planes? are there other potential devices? >> i wouldn't think so.

tsa does a wonderful job. that would not be my fear. i would venture to guess that the individual or individuals that carried out this attack are on the run right now: and i would not expect to see anymore in the near future. >> and when you say on the run, they could be where? in this country? or do you think that there is a chance that they have left? >> i think that our system today in light of postak fifties are so good that the likelihood of an individual fleeing the country is highly unlikely. it wouldn't surprise me if they're not in a safe house or hunkered down in a location in close proximity to where this took place. >> and what about the timing? the timing that this investigation, knowing the tools that this government has, what would be the timing in terms o getting to the bottom of it?

>> by this time, a few hours after the fact, they're going to have a good idea of what kind of dwiesz it actually was, the composition, the explosives. they're going to be able to x-ray some of the victims, they're going to collect a lot of frepzices. they're going to know what kind of frag was involved, whether it was ball bearings or nails, they're going to analyze the video footage to be able to look at potential suspects. i would say they're fairly far along in the investigation at this point. >> thanks for being with us. >> my pleasure. >> and we have praeki ibreaking from washington right now. >> you just heard from tom ridge that he calls this an act of terrorism. let me read this to you from the white house officials saying any event with multiple explosive devices is clearly an act of terror. however, we don't yet know who

carried out this attack and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic. so, maria, clearly a lot of interest around this question or whether or not the u.s. government would brand this in an act of terror. now we're getting that word from an official at the white house. one of the questions here is who exactly was behind this. was this international terrorism? so many of the pres dents here that you can point to whether it was the atlanta bombing during the olympics or the oklahoma city bombing have been domestic. the white house is now saying they are calling this an act of terrorism. >> we'll get more reaction now from a former assistant secretary of homeland security. thank you for joining us. >> what does it mean when we can declare this as the white house has just done, an act of

terrorism? does that change the nature of the investigation? >> it doesn't change the nature as well as it may have our impact on subsequent nations to protect ourselves. the first one is the first responders. the investigators obviously right on top of that. >> that ey're taking protective measures right now. >> what are the most important forensics that you would look at in terms of identifying the origin of this? >> first off, as the secretary just articulated, the timing

device is the timing of the device, where it was placed, the video technology out there, the cam ras, the cctvs, folks that have just been taking photographs and video footage of the event have all caught a glimpse of potentially, the actors. and then the physical evidence is really going to be a very key component. >> just the fact that two of them didn't go off, does that speak to more of an amateurish situation here? >> i you would won't classify it at that. i think you have to look at the types of events that have taken off to date. we have a number of things that have gone on that the f.b.i. and other law enforcement agencies that have continually forced terrorists that might be acting on behalf of the terrorist group, to have to take more amateurish approaches.

so what we might see is that our law enforcement has been very good. and a cut down between major actors and terrorist cell that is might want to be directing folks at the actual actor level. or the actor here could have been somebody who was inspired by terrorists, you know, incull case. but acting on their own without a big support network. but using amateurish or what's available to them to construct the bombs. >> and is this emblematic of any of those group that is you're just mentioning? i'm not asking you to speculate, but based on what we know in terms of the two exploegszs just seconds away, this attempt, i mean, the actor obviously is on a video somewhere. but is this emblematic? >> oh, yes, in fact u but to

account for it as one particular group or another, i'd say this is a very classic terrorist tactic. ordinarily, you don't see them in such close proximity to each other. >> and we are are mindful that the london marathon is coming up soon. they're already saying that they're going to beef up security. what more is there to be done when you ever such a large gathering of people in a place? i'm sure that we don't know about what's going on out there. there's only so much you can do in protecting people, right? >> that's right. the secretary said it very well. you can cancel the event.

and you're effectively doing the same thing the terrorists want you to do in the first place. or you can take very strict precautionary measures. that's what we saw today and i'm sure we're going to see more strict precautions in london. they've got their play book very up to dwat. they know exactly what to do. you can't cut it to the extreme. but you can look for anomalies and use technology to look for anomalies. you can use a lot more people in technology and po ten rnlly disrupt. a key part of terrorism is disruption. if you can prevent or disrupt an event from becoming a really cat strofic event, that's as much as success. >> it's interesting you bring up london olympics. you've also got margaret thatcher's funeral on wednesday.

3 30,000 people run the london marathon each year. what are the kinds of tactics that you expect to be taken next week? >> i any london has had a history of terrorism dating back to the '70s and before that. you've got a civil perspective and i think people there are more proactive. it's getting the word out to the average individual and those who might be watching the spekd day tors that they should be looking for things out of place. we have a program here in the united states called see something, say something. you want to see something su suspicious and report it. the yielunited states does a gr job of that. we sometimes forget that we have a tendency to become a little bit more relaxed and more

comfortedble in our world. regretingly, terrorists take advantage of that. it's difficult to keep up that posture all ooft time. if it doesn't look right, you've got the tell 350e78 about it. >> thanks so much for your insights. >> thanks, robert. >> and we've got much more on this tragedy in boston when we come right back. stay with us. families and businesses is our business. we've reduced taxes and lowered costs to save businesses more than two billion dollars to grow jobs, cut middle class income taxes to the lowest rate in sixty years, and we're creating tax free zones for business startups. the new new york is working creating tens of thousands of new businesses, and we're just getting started. to grow or start your business visit thenewny.com

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tonight. we've got on the telephone right now, don barelli, former f.b.i. special agent task force. thanks for joining us. what can you tell us in terms of what we know so far about this tragedy in boston? >> well rn, i think your other callers have kind of summed it up. right now, it's obviously a terrorist incident. the f.b.i. is in conjunction with local police and the other federal agencies. they've got a big job ahead of them. first and foremost, they'll be looking at these devices, the ones that were exploded and the ones that -- i believe they found some that they were able to render safe. they'll try to get a picture of the sophistication of the person that made these devices. i mean, at first blush, and this is -- i'm not a trained bomb technician, but based on what i saw in the videos and what i've seen in terms of al-qaida

training and the types of devices that we see that are made by people trained in afghanistan and iraq, for example, these devices look less sophisticated than those. had these been really highly sophisticated trained bomb makers, i would expect the casualty numbers to be higher already. that's going to be one of the first kind of orders of business. is figure out what these devices look like. and then the next thing is going to be looking at what other physical evidence is available. both what's collected around the bombs themselves. but other, you know, video, video tapes, cell phone recordings, nowadays, just about any square inch of a big city, there's a camera on it. so we'll try to use that as a means to gather additional evidence. the f.b.i. local police is going to be out speaking with all of their informants. they'll want to know if anybody has any information about that and try to synthesizing that evidence.

it's going to be a fairly long process. >> obviously, they're going through the physical evidence right now, that's cleared. do you suspect there could be a suspect hunt under way yet? i mean, maria was pointing out earlier, you're going to have i didn't do vid you cameras all over the place. do you think there is word out yet on the security network that -- of the type of person they're looking for? >> i can't say with certainty, but i would suspect that there's a very good chance. i looked back when i was still with the f.b.i. and we had the times square attempted bombing and, you know, video cameras were really extremely helpful in trying to, you know, put together a picture of the person that caught that truck there. so let's hope that one of these video cameras or somebody's home video iphone, you know, whatever has a picture of something useful that will help law enforcement get on a warm trail. >> in terms of the practical way this was set up, i mean,

clearly, someone decided to place these at those spots on this day, the boston marathon, what's the timing in terms of when that might have been planted. could you have left that bomb there time to explode a week earlier? when would be your estimate. >> i highly doubt that somebody would have chance ds it to leave it there a week earlier. or maybe even at the beginning of the race. if i had to bet, i would say the dwiesz was planted within fairly close proximity of that nation. now, you know, i'm not familiar with the kpablgt procedures used by boston police and the other entities atf, f.b.i. do they have a dog, bomb dogs, that, you know, basically make patrols up and down the parade route. and if so, a bomber would not want to risk leaving his device

out where a dog could smell it or maybe -- there's other technology, also, available for detecting explosives. i mean, the investigation is going to take a while to unfold. it could be something that this has been, you know, started the laning last year. maybe this person or these individuals -- >> started the planning last year. but when would he -- you're saying that they would be afraid to, you know, raise the ire of the dogs. when would they have been able to place that? >> they would have had to have some knowledge of what, you know, like, for example, if the dogs or other technologies being used randomly to go through the crowd and try to detect explosives, they would have had to understand what is the schedule of that? how often does that happen? is it happening in my place? possibly, there was some reconnaissance done of the security procedures in advance whether earlier in the parade last year, you know, are they

familiar with boston, you know, the techniques that are used to protect this particular event. and then figure out a way how can they circumvent these procedures. >> they did their homework. >> yes, very interesting. >> thanks for your insights tonight. appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> joining us is former as assistant secretary of fence. defense. what does it testimony you that no one has taken any responsibility for this yet? >> i don't know that we can make much of it, frankly. these things sometimes are never claimed. and other occasions, they will wait until it an opportunity for their purposes. we don't know, as you've been talking about, much about the episode itself let alone who perpetrated it.

is it a lone wolf, in which case perhaps they've been, you know, made unable to take credit for it. we don't really know at this point. >> but has there been information that the defense department has been studying in terms of the groups looking to bomb the united states? i mean, what do we know in terms of who the groups are? or might be? home grown terrorists or al-qaida or some similar organizationization? >> well, we certainly have heard from al k-qaida lately that the intend on a spree of earth-shaking, terrifying attacks this summer. i don't know that this would qualify such an attack, though it's certainly got our attention at the moment. they are clearly capable of such a thing. we had the iranian guard corps

try to blow up a popular restaurant in d.c. we had an individual clearly patterning his behavior after that of al-qaida, though seemingly bit more of a freelancer who tried to blow up times square. >> there's no end in short of enemies who have got us in their cross hairs. if we wake up once again and there's, you know, off our complacency of many years now and recognize that we're living in a dangerous world and there are people who wish to do us harm, we'll have gotten away lightly if that's the silver lining such as it is in this dark cloud. >> that's for sure. frank, thanks for joining us, appreciate it. next up, tony roman who is a security expert with row mand and associates. tony, we've just learned that they've cancelled the boston

bruins tonight, the hockey game in boston. when you have a public event, are we to the point now where we go to a public event like a hockey game or any sporting event, like even the boston marathon where we'll have to go through the security screening bef to go through before we're on an airplane? are we at that point? >> i think that if we keep seeing these type of attacks, including home grown attacks that we've seen recently, i think we'll see increased security measures at malls, at public gathering places at private institutions. and i think that would be appropriate at this time. >> i know for years, we've said if we have to do that, then the bad guys have won. but how do you balance between measu more safety out this and trying not to live in a locked down world in this country. >> you have to meet the threat

that exists at the moment. at the current time, both emotionally disturbed people, home grown terrorists&al-qaida, iran, possibly north korea, are all potential threats at the kumpbt time. so the threat is increasing. the frequency of the attacks, both in the united states and globally is increasing and therefore you have to meet that threat with counter measures, such as you would in israel. whether or not we'll reach the point where security is as tiegtight for every restaurant, every mall, every public gathering place in israel still remains to be seen. >> what are queue expecting the investigation scenes to look like at this point? what kind of forensic materials would you expect to be most important in terms of investiga investigating? >> they're going to have the intelligence unit, the counter terrorist agents. they're going to be sort of shaking the tree with regard to confidential sources.

they're going to be doing heat blast analysis and so a host of forensics is going to be done to assess the size, the type and the sources of material used in the bomb. >> all right. >> tony, thanks for joining us. >> it's my pleasure. >> we appreciate it. we've got another runner from today's race joining us now live from boston. jim, what can you tell us? where and when were you when the bombs exploded. >> i'm not on. hello? >> yes, jim, you're on the air lye right now. are you with us? >> all right. he's there. >> all right. we're going to -- >> it's almost time for larry kudlow. we're going to bring you in my friend to here we go again. >> here we go again is right.

you guys are doing a great job. i've been listening to the whole hour. appreciate it. >> i still have some speculations to you because we just don't know anything. >> we don't ef b know how many bombs there were. that's out there. we don't know how those people got near the grand stand. so many unanswered questions. >> right. >> well, we also have questions that are answered. and that is that this was well thought out. so place those bombs in those places. >> this is a terrorist act. there's no doubt about that. the president himself has ratified that. you told this other chap just a moment, you asked about forensics. how long will it take them to come up with some preliminary conclusions? >> that's the question i've been asking. what's the timing on this. they have their specific things that they're looking at. you know, really investigating the bomb as well as the noise as well as the smoke as well as going back to people that are their contacts. and there isn't any real, hard

answer to give you in terms of how many hours or days this will take. >> you think these guys, these are things we maybe ought to throw in the show. you think these terrorists were just moseying around the finish line? backpack of some kind? or do you think they buried this stuff and set off cell phones. these are questions that nobody knows about. what about the subway? d woe know anything about the alleged bombs in the subways? what about the j.f.k. library? >> we know that that now was unrelitted. it was a fire. >> see, all the speculation was going on at the time. even the police commissioner said he wasn't sure that that wasn't related. but now they oef determi've det was a fire that has broken out there. >> boston police has confirmed that there are two people dead. 23 people, at least, injured. but, again, those numbers may very well change. >> what happens now, larry, to the freedoms that we enjoy -- you know what, let me just point

out that they're beginning a moment of silence on the floor of the house to commemorate this. let's listen. >> official terrorism, unofficial, whatever. but clearly, anyone to act in such a manner is clearly an evil person and deserves to be called as such. i know that the rest of america stands with us as we have stood with us before us hopefully never to do again. i know that the people of massachusetts and the people of boston -- this was not just a boston event. it's an international event that draws people from around the wourld. they're probably from other states, possibly even other countries. today, massachusetts is a holiday. it's a state holiday called pay trot's day. it's a day that we celebrate the as of our patriots back in 1776 that started the revolution that brought to berth this country. we remind ourselves regularly what it is to be an american. what it is to be a patriot. what it is to be a membe a